'E   ROBERT  E.  COWflN  COLLECTION 


I  I'RIJSKXTBD   TO   THE 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CHLIFORNIR 

C.  p.  HUNTINGTON 

•iUNE.  18Q7, 

Accession  fio.VS/  6^6^  Class' No. 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


:*•  ,.. 


v^t 


/'v.;. 


Document  No.  24. 


IN  SENATE.]  [SESSION  ISS.') 


KEPOET  OF  THE  COMMITTEE 


ox 


INTEMAL  IMPEOVEMENTS, 


ON   THE   USE   OF 


CAMELS  0^'  THE  PLAINS. 


MAY  30,  1855. 


^ 


[B    U.  KKl)l>tNO,  blAl'K   fRlMLR 


*? 


E  E  P  O  R  T 


Mr.  President : 

The  Committee  ou  Internal  Improvements,  to  whom  was  referred  the  memo- 
rial of  Wra.  Nea^e  Walton  on  the  subject  of  introducing  camels  and  dromedaries 
into  California,  and  employing  them  for  transportation  across  the  deserts  inter- 
vening between  California  and  the  Eastern  States. 

Also,  Senate  bill  No.  229,  An  Act  to  encourage  immigration  and  to  facilitate 
inter-oceanic  communications,  have  had  the  same  under  consideration  and  ask 
leave  to  report  as  follows: 

The  object  designed  to  be  attained  by  the  memorial  and  the  bill,  is  one  which 
eminently  merits  the  fostering  care  of  the  Legislature.  Although,  to  some 
minds,  it  may  seem  to  be  surrounded  with  such  obstacles  as  to  make  it  appear 
impracticable,  yet  this  should  not  deter  us  from  the  attempt  when  we  reflect 
that  our  most  common  and  useful  domestic  animals,  especially  the  horse  and  the 
ox,  were  not  natives  of  this  continent,  but  accompanied  the  colonists  of  Spain 
and  England  in  their  immigration.  The  Aztecs  who  had  arrived  at  a  high  de- 
gree of  luxury  and  civilization  in  Mexico,  were  strangers  to  the  horse  until  they 
encountered  it  and  dreaded  it  as  a  demi-god  in  their  battles  with  Fernando 
Cortez . 

There  are  two  kinds  of  camel,  the  camel  proper,  which  has  two  bunches,  and 
is  more  extensively  used  in  the  desert  steppes  of  Central  Asia,  between  the 
Caspian  Sea  and  China,  and  between  latitude  of  35°  and  45*^  north  latitude; 
and  the  dromedary  camel,  which  has  only  one  bunch,  is  more  light  and  fleet  than 
the  other,  and  is  in  extensive  use  throughout  Arabia,  Syria,  Persia,  and  the 
north  of  Africa. 

Cuvier  says  the  camel  with  two  bunches  succeeds  best  in  humid  soils;  it  is 
larger  and  stronger  than  the  other.  The  camel  with  one  bunch  is  most  remark- 
able for  its  sobriety.  The  dromedary  is  i)roperly  a  lighter  variety  and  more 
fitted  for  expedition. 

There  is  a  great  similarity  between  the  physical  formation  of  Central  Asia, 
where  the  camel  is  used,  and  that  of  the  interior  of   our  o^^  u  continent,  from 


the  frontier  of  Arkansas  to  the  Sierra  Nevada.  That  part  of  Asia  lies  between 
the  35th  and  45th  degrees  of  north  hvtitudo. 

There  is  also  a  great  resemblance  between  the  climate  and  topography  of 
California  and  Syria,  where  the  camel  is  successfully  reared,  and  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  we  could  rear  them  upon  our  southern  ranches  as  easily 
as  any  other  animal. 

Should  this  fact  be  well  tested,  we  might  then  procure  our  stock  for  breeding 
across  the  Pacific  directly  from  India,  Arabia  or  China. 

The  power  possessed  by  the  camel  of  long  abstinence  from  drink,  will  render 
him  invaluable  in  crossing  our  alkaline  aud  arid  deserts  of  Utah  and  New 
Mexico. 

He  also  possesses  auotlicr  quality  eminently  valuable,  which  is  thus  described 
by  Major  C.  H.  Smith,  of  the  British  Army. 

"  The  camel  sees  and  hears  well,  but  of  all  his  senses  that  of  smell  is  the 
most  acute.  By  this  beuifii.'ent  provision  when  long  deprived  of  water  he  will 
snutF  the  air  and  discover  its  presence  at  the  distance  of  more  than  two  miles, 
and  disregarding  all  opposition,  hasten  to  obtain  it,  stirring  the  water  with  his 
feet  to  a  state  of  mud  before  he  drinks.  By  this  faculty  of  the  camel  whole 
caravans  are  sometimes  saved  from  destruction;  so  that  it  is  not  only  useful  to 
himself,  but  of  the  most  vital  importance  to  those  who  share  his  dangers  and 
fatigues." 

At  this  late  period  of  the  session,  your  Committee  will  not  dilate  either  upon 
the  importance  of  encouraging  the  introduction  of  the  camel,  nor  upon  its  nat- 
ural history,  uses  and  habits.  The  subject  has  been  ably  and  fully  treated  by 
Mr.  Gwinu  Harris  Heap,  the  journalist  of  Lieut.  Beale's  late  expedition  over 
the  central  route  across  our  continent,  and  the  Committee  have  appended  to 
this  report  an  extract  from  the  appendix  to  that  work,  which  extract  they  hope 
may  be  printed  for  circulation  by  Senators.  It  possesses  the  more  value  from 
the  fact  that  Mr.  Heap  was  for  some  years  a  resident  of  Tunis,  in  northern 
Africa,  and  is,  therefore,  practically  familiar  with  the  habits  of  the  camel,  and 
fully  capable  by  his  recent  explorations  of  judging  of  its  adaptation  to  the 
purposes  of  our  interior  travel. 

Senators  and  others  who  desire  more  closely  to  investigate  this  subject  are 
referred  to  Cuvier's  Animal  Kingdom,  pages  four  and  five,  and  thirty-seven  to 
fifty,  where  will  be  found  an  interesting  note  by  Major  Charles  Hamilton  Smith, 
containing  a  fund  of  zoological,  historical  and  practical  information  on  this 
subject;  also,  to  the  article  "Camel,"  in  Lieber's  Encyclopedia  Americana,  vol.  2. 

In  relation  to  the  bill  referred  to  the  Committee,  it  has  been  deemed  best  to 
present  a  substitute,  which  is  herewith  submitted;  the  reasons  for  which  will  be 
explained  verbally  by  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee,  when  the  bill  comes  bo- 
fore  the  Senate  for  consideration. 

All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted. 

By  order  of  the  Committee. 

S.  DAY, 

Chairman. 


APPENDIX    TO    REPOUT. 


A  P  P  E  N  1)  1  X . 


(A.) 

ME  MORI  AT. 

Sacramrkto,  April  23,  1855. 


To  the  Honorable  the  Legislature  of  California: 

The  undersigned,  for  five  years  a  resident  of  this  State,  bogs  respectfully  to 
ueraorialize  your  honorable  body  on  a  subject  of  paramount  importance  to  the 
present  and  future  advancement  of  the  State's  best  interest,  prosperity  and 
greatness,  viz:  the  subject  of  inter-oceanic  communication  by  land. 

It  is  a  conceded  fact  that  California  justly  and  proudly  boasts  that  she  con- 
tains within  her  domain,  some  of  the  brightest  intelligences  of  the  present  age 
aud  generation,  and  in  no  relation  of  life,  whether  commercially,  politically  or 
intellectually,  can  she  be  surpassed  by  any  community  on  the  face  of  the  globe, 
assimilating  numerically  with  her  in  population. 

Taking  these  propositions  as  axioms,  your  memorialist  would  respectfully  rep- 
resent that  to  apply  these  multiplied  advantages  to  a  practical  benefit,  is  to  en- 
courage and  foster  every  enterprise  that  will  tend  either  immediately  or  pros- 
pectively to  consummate  the  destiny  clearly  manifest  to  this  '^  Enipire  of  the 
Pacific,"  which,  at  no  late  day,  will  be  and  become  the  great  emporium  of  the 
commercial  world. 

Your  honorable  body  have  wisely  commenced  the  initiative  step,  in  the  appro- 
priation of  the  State's  funds  for  the  construction  of  a  road  to  our  State's  bor- 
ders, and  the  General  Government  have,  after  much  delay,  appropriated  money 
to  extend  that  road  across  the  continent;  but  these  enterprises,  liberally  under- 
taken by  a  State  and  Nation,  must  necessarily  occupy  considerable  time  ere 
they  are  prosecuted  to  completion. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  and  the  urgent  necessity  of  some  immediate  and  prac- 
ticable enterprise  that  will  consummate  and  realize  this  great  desideratum,  your 
memorialist  respectfully  submits  the  following  jjroposition,  in  the  full  confidence 
of  vonr  liberality,  integrity  and  magnanimity,  believing  that  the  great  good  that 


will  accrue  to  our  commerce,  prosperity  and  advaucenient,  will  so  forcibly  pre- 
sent itself  to  your  minds  that  a  detailed  advocacy  would  be  superfluous. 

The  proposition  is: 

That  the  State  Legislature  of  California,  shall,  by  legislative  act,  donate  in 
fee  simple  to  the  undersigned,  all  the  right,  title  and  interest  of  the  State,  in 
and  to  certain  quarter  sections  of  land  (not  to  exceed  five  quarter  sections) 
situate  between  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  State  and  the  Pacific  coast,  as 
stations  for  the  encouragement  of  an  overland  immigration  by  means  of  camels 
.  and  dromedaries.  The  undersigned  purposes  and  agrees  within  twelve  months 
from  and  after  the  passage  of  an  Act  embracing  the  above  donation, _  to  place 
trains  of  camels  and  dromedaries  on  a  route  from  a  point  or  station  on  the 
Atlantic  coast  to  a  point  or  station  ou  the  Pacific  coast,  for  the  purpose  of 
expediting  inter-oceanic  communication  in  a  speedy  and  secure  mauner. 

Your  memorialist  would  respectfully  call  the  attention  of  your  honorable 
body  to  the  fact  that  an  enterprise  of  this  nature  has  been  presented  to  the 
consideration  of  our  National  Legislature,  and  met  with  the  most  favorable 
reception.  The  ComraitteG  to  whom  the  whole  matter  was  referred,  would  have 
reported  a  most  liberal  appropriation  from  the  National  Treasury,  to  convey'' 
the  mails  across  this  continent  by  means  of  camels  and  dromedaries,  did  not 
some  serious  obstacles  present  themselves  in  our  general  Post  Office  law. 

Your  memorialist  would  inform  your  honorable  body  that  a  similar  requisition 
to  the  above  will  be  presented  to  the  State  Legislature  of  Texas,  asking  the 
same  donation,  not  so  much  for  the  value  of  the  lands  donated,  as  to  give  an 
implied  expression  of  opinion  on  this  all  important  subject.  The  General  Got 
ernment  will  doubtless  donate  to  the  undersigned  the  necessary  quarter  sections 
(for  stations)  in  the  Territory  of  New  Mexico. 

From  statistical  facts,  it  is  with  pride  your  memorialist  informs  your  honor- 
able body  that  by  donating  this  land,  and  thereby  expressing  an  implied  endors- 
ment  of  the  people  of  California  to  his  enterprise,  he  v/ill  be  enabled,  by  the' 
aid  of  capital  placed  at  his  disposal  for  the  prosecution  of  his  project,  within  a^^ 
very  few  months  to  place  a  train  of  dromedaries  on  the  southern  route,  that  will' 
make  the  distance  from  Texas  or  New  Orleans  to  the  Gila  River,  thence  to  San 
Diego  or  Los  Angeles,  in  from  eight  to  ten  days,  an  almost  incredible  shortj 
time,  yet  nevertheless  true. 

Your  memorialist  has  it  from  unquestionable  authority,  that  the  dispatches 
are  constantly  forwarded  f*-om  Cairo  and  Alexandria  in  Egypt,  to  Mecca  in 
Arabia,  a  distance  of  near  eight  hundred  miles,  in  four  days,  by  one  of  these 
animals,  thence  to  Aden,  whose  gulf  forms  its  estuary  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  a 
distance  of  near  six  hundred  miles,  in  sixty  hours.  These  facts  are  given  tq 
show  the  entire  practicability  of  the  enterprise. 

So  soon  as  this  enterprise  is  commenced,  the  commercial  and  other  intelligence 
from  India  and  China,  will  be  anticipated  in  our  own  and  the  European  monetar 
and  commercial  world,  hy  at  least  twenty  days. 

Your  memorialist,  in  conclnsion,  relies  on  the  vast  importance  of  this  subject 
as  being  a  sufficient  warranty  in  him  asking  this  trifling  donation  of  land,  which 
as  before  stated,  he  requires  more  as  an  implied  expression  of  opinion  than  foi 
the  intrinsic  value  of  the  soil,  and  your  memorialist  will  ever  prsy. 

WILLIAM  NEALE  WALTON. 


(B.) 


CAMELS,  AS  A  SUBSTITUTE  FOR  HORSES.  MULES.  ETC. 


During  our  journc}'  across  the  continent,  I  took  particular  note  of  the  country 
with  reference  to  its  adaptation  to  the  use  of  camels  and  dromedaries,  and  to  ascer- 
tain whether  these  animals  might  be  introduced  with  advantage  on  our  extensive 
plains. 

Having,  by  a  residence  of  many  years  in  Asia  and  Africa,  become  well  acquaint- 
ed with  their  qualities  and  powers  of  endurance,  I  am  now  convinced  that  they 
would  be  of  inestimable  value  in  traversing  the  dry  and  barren  regions  between  the 
Colorado  and  the  Sierra  Nevada  ;  and  I  am  glad  to  see  that  the  Secretary  of  War 
has,  in  his  late  report  to  Congress,  asked  for  an  appropriation  for  the  purpose  of 
importing  a  certain  number,  in  order  to  test  their  usefulness. 

I  will  now  state  a  few  facts,  which  will  show  the  valuable  qualities  that  these 
animals  possess,  the  manner  in  which  they  may  be  rendered  serviceable,  and  the 
facility  with  which  they  might  be  domesticated  on  our  continent. 

In  enumerating  the  qualities  which  render  the  camel  and  dromedary  so  well 
suited  to  OUT  western  waters,  I  will  quote  from  several  travellers,  whose  Ktatemeuts 
will  corroborate  my  own  ; 


1.       THEIR  POWER  TO  ENDURE  HUNGER  AND  THIRST. 

Taveniier,  the  great  Eastern  traveller,  states  that  his  camels,  in  going  from  Alep- 
po to  Ispahan,  by  the  Great  Desert,  went  nine  days  without  drinking. 

The  French  missionary.  Hue,  who  travelled  in  Tartary,  Thibet,  &c.,  in  the  years 
1844,  '45,  '46,  gives  some  interesting  information  in  relation  to  this  animal. 

Speaking  of  the  Desert  of  Ortos,  on  the  northern  border  of  China,  he  says  : 
"  Everywhere  the  waters  are  brackish,  the  soil  arid,  and  covered  with  saline  efflo- 
rescences. This  sterility  is  very  injurious  to  cattle  ;  the  camel,  however,  whose 
robust  and  hardy  nature  adapts  itself  to  the  most  barren  regions,  is  a  substitute  with 
the  Tartars  for  all  other  animals.  The  camel,  which  they  with  truth  style  '  the 
treasure  of  the  desert,'  can  abstain  from  food  and  drink  for  fifteen  days,  and  some- 
times for  a  mouth.  However  poor  the  country,  he  always  finds  sufficient  food  to 
satisfy  his  hunger.  In  the  most  sterile  plains,  the  herbs  which  other  animals  will 
not  touch,  and  even  bushes  and  dry  wood,  will  serve  him  for  food."  In  Barbary, 
they  can  remain  five  days  without  drinking  during  the  summer  when  the  heat  is 
intolerable,  and  there  is  little  or  no  herbage ;  but  when  there  is  grass,  and  particu- 
larly in  spring,  they  require  no  water  for  threa  \veeks 


10 


2.   THEIK  STRENGTH,  SPEED,  AND  ENDURANCE. 

No  animal  can  compete  with  the  camel  for  strength  and  endurance.  The  Africaa 
traveller,  Shaw,  relates  that  on  his  journey  to  Mount  Sinai,  which  was  over  a  very 
hot  and  stony  region,  though  each  of  his  camels  carried  seven  quintals  (784  pounds), 
he  travelled  ten,  and  sometimes  fifteen  hours  a  day,  at  the  rate  of  three  miles  an 

hour. 

Another  traveller  (F.  A.  Neale,  Eight  Years  ni  Syria)  states:  "  The  Turcoman 
camel,  a  much  finer  animal  than  the  Syrian,  will  carry,  equally  poised,  two  bales, 
•weighing  together  half  a  ton." 

Hue  remarks  :  "  Although  he  costs  so  little  to  nouri.sh,  the  camel  can  be  properly 
appreciated  in  those  countries  only  where  he  is  in  constant  use.  His  ordinary  load 
is  from  seven  to  eight  huudred  pounds,  and  with  this  burden  he  can  travel  about 
ten  leagues  a  day." 

In  Barbary,  they  carry  from  550  to  600  pounds,  and  travel  forty  miles  a  day. 


8.   THE  LONGEVITY  OF  THE  CAMEL. 

The  naturalist,  Buffon,  states  that  camels  live  from  forty  to  fifty  years.  In  Tunis, 
where  I  had  daily  opportunities  of  seeing  them,  they  live  fully  fifty  years.  Mr. 
Hue  says  that  they  retain  their  vigor  for  many  years,  and  if  they  are  allowed  a  short 
period  of  rest  in  the  spring,  to  pasture,  they  are  of  good  service  for  fifty  years 

The  camel,  therefore,  possesses  more  useful  qualities  than  any  otlier  animal  sub- 
jected to  the  use  of  man.  His  strength  is  such  that  he  can  carry  more  than  three 
mule  loads,  though  he  requires  as  little  nourishment  as  the  ass. 

In  Asia  and  Africa,  the  journeys  of  the  caravans  are  often  from  two  thousand  to 
three  thousand  miles  in  length,  during  which  they  average  from  thirty  to  thirty-five  ' 
miles  a  day.  ^ 

They  are  remarkably  docile  and  obedient  to  their  masters  ;  lie  down  to  be  loaded 
and  unloaded ;  at  night,  sleep  crouched  in  a  circle  around  the  encampment.  They 
rarely  stray  away,  nor  are  they,  as  mules,  liable  to  be  frightened  ;  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult— nay,  impossible — to  stampede  a  caravan  of  camels.  When  turned  out  to 
pasture,  they  oat  in  an  hour  as  much  as  serves  them  to  ruminate  the  whole  night, 
and  to  nourish  ihem  during  twenty-four  hours. 

The  female  camel  furni^ies  excellent  milk  longer  than  the  cow,  upon  which  the 
Arabs  often  subsist  during  their  long  journeys.     Their  hair,  which  is  renewed  an-  ! 
nually,  is  more  in  request  than  the  finest  wool ;  the  fleece  weighs  about  ten  pounds. 

The  dromedary  possesses  the  same  qualities  as  the  camel,  as  regards  abstemious-  ' 
ness,  docility,  &c.,  to  which  he  adds  much  greater  speed  and  endurance. 

The  dromedary  is  a  much  taller  and  finer-shaped  animal  thdn  the  camel.  The  I 
Arabs  assert  that  he  can  travel  as  far  in  one  day  as  one  of  their  best  horses  can  in 
four.  They  are  so  hardy,  that  they  travel  in  the  desert  for  eight  or  ten  days  at  the 
rate  of  from  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  per  day, 
during  which  time  they  require  very  little  food  or  water.  I  saw  a  party  of  Arabs, 
mounted  on  dromedaries,  arrive  in  Tunis  in  four  days  from  Tripoli,  a  distance  of 
six  hundred  miles. 

In  these  journeys,  they  do  not  bear  heavy  loads,  but  carr}'  a  man,  with  his  arms 
and  provisions,  which  are  equivalent  to  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds. 

General  Yusuf,  of  the  French  army,  travelled  from  Blidah,  a  town  in  Uie  interior  i 


11 

of  Algeria,  to  the  city  of  Algiers,  in  a  carriage  drawn  by  clromedarice.  Thongli 
these  animals  had  a  few  days  before  made  a  journey  from  Medeah  to  Boghar,  a  dis- 
tance of  one  hundred  and  eighty  miles,  in  twenty-four  hours,  the  General  drove  them 
at  the  rate  of  ten  miles  the  hour. 

Hue  remarks  :  "  Those  that  are  employed  to  carry  dispatches,  arc  made  to  travel 
eighty  leagues  in  a  day  ;  but  they  only  carry  a  rider." 

The  same  author  observes  :  "  When  their  fur  is  long,  camels  can  endure  the 
most  severe  frosts.  Naturalists  have  stated  that  camels  could  not  live  in  cold  cli- 
mates ;  they  probably  had  reference  to  those  of  Arabia." 

In  Turkey  in  Europe,  where  the  winters  are  very  severe,  cam>ds  are  in  common 
use  at  all  seasons.  They  arc  also  used  in  winter  as  well  as  summer,  on  the  elevated 
steppes  of  Tartary,  as  far  north  as  50  degrees. 


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